Portia M is a proudly South African beauty and cosmetics brand that has revolutionised the business in the past 13 years. The brand retails in over 2000 stores in South Africa, 14 in Zambia and one in Tanzania, distributed by agents throughout the rest of the continent and boasts 18 stores of their own. The owner, Portia Mngomezulu tells Lesley Mofokeng how discipline got her this far.
How has your entrepreneurship journey been so far?
It has been interesting. It has been full of growth, with lots of challenges, but also inspiration for me as the founder of Portia M. The reception from our people who are willing to support the brand has been overwhelming. The start was rough because this was an organically developed brand, built from our pockets because we didn’t have funding. We kept negotiating favourable terms with clients so that we could be paid on time and that helped with the cashflow.
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What has been the toughest business lesson you learnt?
It’s not easy to change the mindset of a consumer. You have to constantly speak about the quality of your product and why they should still believe in you. We have an aspirational society in South Africa, they want someone they can look up to, so here comes Portia who is not a TV personality, it was a challenge, but the efficacy of the product spoke for itself and that’s what people are buying into.
What business principles do you live by?
Integrity is non-negotiable. Authenticity – people don’t want things that don’t exist. That is why at Portia M the face of the brand is the people who use them. We are also customer focused. We pride ourselves in our interactions with our customers, their feedback assists us to innovate and develop our products.
How has the business of beauty and retail evolved since you started and how has that impacted what you do?
This space has definitely evolved and keeps changing that’s why you have to be agile and be informed on what is happening. When I started the brands were celebrity focused. We came in as disruptors and used a normal person who used the product sharing their experience of before and after. Brands now use real people who are experiencing their products. Our customers these days are informed about active ingredients and we now call them out in our adverts. Customers also want more organic products such as our Marula and pomegranate oils. With information at fingertips the customer can find out the benefits of these fruit, plants or trees we use, it’s a revolution in the industry.
What are the three things every entrepreneur needs to survive business?
Resilience, there will be lots of bullets thrown at you to discourage you, but giving up is not an option. Be persistent with a clear vision and pursue it with all your might, you cannot be the weakest link in communicating the dream planted in you. Lastly, take care of your mental and spiritual health. I am spiritual and prayerful and that centres me. I recognise the higher power that orders my steps and that settles me. Entrepreneurs need to take care of their spiritual health.
How has your faith influenced your decision-making?
It influences it every day. We are here for a purpose which is to give to one another and light the other’s candle. Through my business I have been able to give back to my brothers and sisters, whether in the form of employment or change on skin after years of acne, or even my story that shows that success is possible. I am a spirit and have to influence the others positively.
What have been the challenges and opportunities of running Portia M?
Funding is not easy to come by, and that has been a big challenge in my journey. Tied to that has been access to markets, us, people of my colour have to prove ourselves 10 times more than others. People are sensitive with what they put on their faces. In addition, we also have to go up against an attitude that European science is superior. We have had to convince our people to believe in African science. We have trees that can heal us. This has been a huge challenge but also so fulfilling. Coming to opportunities, I think being a black brand based in South Africa and Africa for the world is in and of itself an opportunity. We still have so much to achieve. Our vision is to be the house of beauty of the continent. What we wish for is to reignite the mind of an African to believe in themselves. We can do something great too, we don’t need someone to come from Paris to tell us what the Marula tree can do for us. Portia from GaMasheshemale in Phalaborwa can tell us that a tree you used to play under as a child has all these healing properties for our benefit.
What has been the lowest point in business and your highest?
There have been many low points. I will always remember when Portia M was attacked on social media. I am a private person, who just wanted to sell her product to the people, what I didn’t realise was how much of a threat we had become to big business. That social media uproar made me reassess what we do for our customers, and to realise that I was going into the lions’ den or retreat. I had to learn to survive. During that whole havoc we were number one at Clicks and the big guys knew that. So, in September 2021, we were awarded he best performing product at Clicks, that was the highest point. I told my team we have to keep going because we were doing something amazing for our people.
What advice can you share with emerging entrepreneurship regarding funding or raising capital?
It takes a lot of discipline. You have to keep knocking at government agencies that provide funding. We also need to be disciplined when we make our first money and blowing it on things that won’t benefit the business. I spent the first seven years in business not earning a salary. Everything was ploughed back, that took a lot of discipline. The thing is you have to sacrifice now because the reward comes later and it’s even greater. It’s a struggle even with entrepreneurs bidding for tenders, we just eat everything. We can’t create generational wealth if we carry on like that. We must learn to save and accumulate through discipline.
What are your projections for the future?
We play in the beauty space generating over R600billion turnover a year in South Africa. We need to need to claim least 40% of it in the next years. We want to cement ourselves as an anchor brand in Africa, the first name that must come to mind should be Portia M. We have introduced hair care products and have diversified into other ventures such as Mngomezulu Hardware in Pretoria, where we have six outlets. We also have Home Things which sells household stuff and crockery and now we want to venture into interior design and furniture. In September we will be opening our conference and events venue named Divine Sunset in Blue Hills, Midrand. It will be open to host conferences, team building, baby showers, bridal showers. We will host our first ever Portia M brunch at the venue too.
